Immigration security

The importance of public safety and national security in the immigration debate

The battle occurring in Congress over providing amnesty, citizenship and government benefits to illegal aliens – as well as the debate over chain migration and the diversity visa lottery program – often boils down to well-worn talking points.

Lawmakers should instead review two recent reports from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, along with information from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They show that aliens commit federal crimes at a much higher rate than citizens, and that many terrorists have entered the U.S. through our immigration system that a separate Inspector General’s Office report says has a defective screening process.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reports that, based on conviction information compiled by the Government Accountability Office from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, from 2011 to 2016 44.2 percent of the criminals convicted in federal courts were non-citizens.

This is despite the fact that aliens are only 8.4 percent of the American population, divided almost evenly between legal and illegal aliens.